Matthew Burnette, Staff Writer

While many people steer away from starting a business with friends and loved ones, Trey Frame and Emilie Evans are doing just the opposite with their new lemonade business Lemon Grove Lemonade.

“Running a business with your partner, it’s got to be one of the most fun things I’ve ever done,” said Frame. “Getting everything together and learning about it. It’s been fun.”

Both Frame and Evans worked at the Coca Cola plant in Tullahoma before being laid off, but even before that, the two constantly spoke about going into business together.

“We both have a passion for entrepreneurial work, and we wanted to do something that’s cheap and effective; something you can get into cheaply but also hit the masses,” Frame explained.

“A big thing for us is that we don’t want to work a 9 to 5 anymore. We really want to work for ourselves and create something for ourselves that we can do more with,” added Evans.

The couple decided on lemonade after bouncing around the idea of selling either hot dogs or burgers due to the simplicity of the drink and a long-held affection for the drink on Frame’s part.

“I mean, I just love lemonade,” he explained. “I’ve always loved lemonade. I grew up drinking lemonade. My grandmother’s lemonade was the best ever. It was a no brainer for me to do lemonade.”

Safe Storage of Manchester is where the two are currently set up to sell. They load their Nissan Sentra up with a tent, tables, coolers and everything else they need.

The two hope to move into selling at festivals, farmers’ markets and other locations with aspirations as high as Bonnaroo and explained that the community has been a big help in possibly making that happen.

“That’s been a really big thing,” said Evans. “People have told us so much about events or people that we can get in contact with, and that’s been super helpful. There’s a lot of small business owners around here who have been in the same position starting out, so it’s been great.”

Their customers so far have also given helpful advice in regard to the business as well like using simple syrup instead of sugar and ringing a bell when someone tips to make it more fun for the customers.

Frame was born and raised in Manchester, and Evans moved here several years ago from Ohio when her parents both accepted jobs positions at Great Lakes Cheese.

She explained that she likes how homey Manchester feels.

“It’s a small town where everybody knows everybody, but that’s a good thing if you know good people,” she said. “Everyone’s very sweet here.”

Lemon Grove offers a variety of flavors with quirky names like Strawberry Shelly, Berry Kerry and Lemon Larry. They also offer a drink called Blue Ocean which is a Sprite-based drink with a variety of fruit that’s topped with shark gummies.

The pair hope to add new flavors as they go along with weekly specials like tropical flavors or even a spicy variety using a chipotle pineapple syrup.

In addition to branching out, hoping to stay in southern Middle Tennessee in the process, Evans says that a short-term goal they have is purchasing a horse trailer to operate out of to maybe start selling hot drinks in the winter.

“I want to move into maybe even at some point having people run this so we can open other things as well,” she explained. “But a year from now, if we can get a trailer so we can get some air conditioning and everything that we need like a fridge instead of coolers, that would be great.”

“I would say that another goal that we have is to just have financial freedom through this and do this every day and it pay our bills, then that would be the biggest blessing,” added Frame.

He explained that the two spend a lot of time cleaning up after selling lemonade but also talking about how they can progress their company and how they can make it better the next day.

They do allow themselves some downtime when they can, though.

“We generally try to stay up on the arts and hang out with friends as much as we can because that’s just kind of the best thing for your mental health is to hang out with people who you care about,” said Frame.

“But we are hustling more than anything.”